The Bellevue Hill Improvement Association (BHIA) met on Aug. 19. The evening’s main topic concerned the Planning Department’s Neighborhood Housing rezoning initiative – outreach for which has been underway in West Roxbury, Roslindale, and Hyde Park since early 2024.

This initiative is driven by several stated components:

Most housing within the city is out of compliance with the zoning code, which – in and of itself – is not a problem. However, whenever any improvements are made that create changes in the exterior of a non-conforming house (EX: adding a porch or dormers), all of those pre-existing violations kick in, necessitating the zoning relief process, which can be lengthy and expensive.

One of the stated goals behind Neighborhood Housing is to try to create zoning districts that – by their design and application – will bring properties within selected neighborhoods into compliance, thus removing the need to seek variances from the Zoning Board of Appeal (ZBA) whenever some sort of exterior-altering home improvement is attempted.

By and large, this has been well received.

The other major goal behind the initiative is to loosen zoning restrictions for constructing an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) in order to make it easier and less expensive for property owners to build one. For properties meeting building guidelines, ADUs can be built in one of three ways: either internally (typically as a basement or an attic unit), as an attachment, or as a free-standing building on the lot (EX: a converted carriage house or garage).

By and large, the public reception for this component of the initiative has been mixed.

This is because – by the loosening of zoning regulations to allow ADUs as-of-right – any sort of binding community input that is now required in the zoning relief process would be removed.

Throughout the initiative’s community process – which has progressed in intermittent stages over the last two-and-a-half years – that removal of binding input has been the primary contention, based on concerns regarding the possibility of the density increase for selected neighborhoods.

This has been counterbalanced by residents from various neighborhoods who have expressed interest in potentially being able to more easily build an ADU on their property.

These exterior improvement/ADU regulations will be loosened through the rezoning of selected neighborhoods’ residential districts, with the plan to go through the entire city.

West Roxbury, Roslindale, and Hyde Park were the first neighborhoods selected for the Neighborhood Housing initiative and are now in their final stages of this process.

The proposed zoning maps – as well as the draft zoning amendment that goes with them – were released for all three neighborhoods about a month ago and the comment period will run until Oct. 31, after which the new maps will go to the Zoning Commission for adoption.

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Between now and then, various forms of community engagement are being scheduled.

At Wednesday’s meeting, a two-part informal Neighborhood Housing presentation was started by BHIA Vice President Jay Buckley, during which he gave a basic overview of what is planned, and put out to the membership to tell the BHIA Board how to proceed regarding the issue.

He also got a good show of hands from the 15 or so who were in attendance, in order to determine who has been following the initiative as it has been moving forward in West Roxbury.

That noted, there was uncertainty in the room regarding what, exactly, is going on. Included in that category was District 6 City Councilor Ben Weber, who had spoken with the Planning Department earlier that day but sounded like he was still finding his footing on the topic, and had reached a different conclusion than Buckley had regarding new construction under the initiative.

Buckley was followed by Anthony Tse, a real estate broker specializing in development.

What he had to say was pertinent because – throughout the Neighborhood Housing community process – there has been a constant suspicion/concern/fear of developers coming in, buying up properties, and building them out to the capacity allowed under the new zoning guidelines.

“I deal with all these investors that like to make money,” Tse said, after citing interest rates, construction costs, the price of homes in Bellevue Hill, and the expense of building an ADU. “Could they do it? Could they come to this neighborhood? I’ll be honest, the numbers don’t make sense. They like to buy things that are cheap, add a little value, and then sell.”

Fielding some questions from skeptical attendees, Tse kept running through hypothetical figures and kept arriving at the same conclusion for Bellevue Hill. “It’s just not feasible.”

For more information about the Neighborhood Housing initiative, including access to the draft zoning maps for all three neighborhoods, the draft amendment, upcoming outreach events and dates, as well as contact information, go to https://gvimes.link/nhbrhdzng

For more information about the BHIA, visit www.friendsofbellevuehill.org.